Out In The Mountains : News - Methodist Bishop Arrested in Pro-Gay Demonstration

The bishop of Vermont’s Methodist churches was arrested last month during a demonstration in support of gay and lesbian rights outside a national church meeting.

The May 10 civil disobedience took place at the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, a two-week-long gathering in Cleveland, Ohio. The protestors were arrested when they blocked a driveway to the convention hall where the meeting was being held. Bishop Susan Morrison asked to go to the police station with the protestors and was told she could only go under arrest. So she asked to be arrested.

“It was a response to seeing some of God’s children in pain,” Morrison told the Rutland Herald. “I believe it’s an issue of human dignity and self-worth.”

Approximately 190 people were arrested, including Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas Gandhi.

Inside, members were voting on policies by which the church will be governed, some of them concerning the inclusion of gays and lesbians including the sanctifying of same-sex relationships.

Rev. Barbara Lemmel, the voting delegate to the conference from Vermont, didn’t witness her bishop’s arrest. “I didn’t participate in the demonstration because I felt my job was to be a delegate and to vote,” said the incoming Conference Minister for the area, “If I had been outside, there wouldn’t have been anyone to vote against the existing church law.”

Lemmel said she has faced some objections in Vermont to her vocal support of gay and lesbian rights, but generally doesn’t expect trouble as she assumes her new role. She said that not all pastors and congregations agree on the subject. “It’s important to understand the difference between what the pastor says and what the congregations say,” she said.

Rev. Mitchell Hay, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Montpelier, also supports full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church and said he is proud of the bishop’s actions at the conference. “It was a strong prophetic witness for the working of the Holy Spirit and the power of the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ against the myopia within the institutional church,” said Hay.

Although not all members of his congregation are supportive of the bishop’s choice to be arrested, or of gay and lesbian rights, Hay said most people were treating the incident with good humor. During the Sunday service on May 14, he made a special announcement. “I said we were taking up a special collection of bail money for the bishop,” said Hay. “It got a lot of giggles.”

Methodist Church law currently states “Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.” Pastors who defy that edict are subject to defrocking.